Unverified Voracity Sleuths Redshirts

Programming note: Regular posting tomorrow; blog is off Thursday and Friday. UFR will appear early next week; I'm not going to bother with the pointless fourth quarter.

Basketball, yo. Michigan plays Norfolk State tonight at 8:30 at Crisler. Students get in free; citizens get in for a buck with a couple of canned goods. Go, man, and get in on the ground floor of the Beilein Era.

Go.

Go to the basketball game.

Hey, score. So I'm tooling around looking for Washington fans with guns to their temple for This Week In Schadenfreude (tons of hilarious ND content this week, BTW)when I stumble across this on the redshirt status of Jake Locker:

"There is a new tweak to the rule where if you haven't played in 30 percent of the game, you qualify," [UW athletic director for compliance & student development John] Morris said.

Thirty percent would be 3.6 games and, according to Morris, the NCAA rounds up. Given that Locker was hurt in the fourth game of the season, he would qualify on that hand.

(Locker is out of luck because he took a non-injury redshirt as a freshman, FTR.)

The relevance of this to Michigan? Wide receiver Junior Hemingway played in four games before he was sidelined with mono, and under the old rules (25%) would have been SOL as far as a redshirt goes. If Morris is correct, and it's his job to be correct here, Hemingway should get a redshirt and will enter 2009 a sophomore.

What went down. There's been a moderate amount of consternation about that first quarter scuffle on the Michigan sidelines between Charles Stewart and some dude who looks like Morpheus:

He's at it again. Would you believe there was another article about how the spread is dead featuring everyone's favorite spread-hating, always-incorrect television analyst? Of course you would. If newspapers are good for anything it's mind-numbing repetition. Here's Gary Danielson again:

"I said in September that Michigan would be the last major program that goes to the spread," CBS football analyst Gary Danielson said. "I'm sure it's always going to be there for the MAC schools and schools like Kansas and Purdue. But at the top of the food chain, I don't see why you'd risk it. Michigan has really painted itself into a corner."

The article actually says "The spread is, in fact, dead."

The top fifteen offenses in total yardage read like this: spread, spread, Oklahoma, spread 4x, Nebraska, spread 4x, ULL, spread 2x. The best offense in the SEC (Florida): spread. The best offense in the Pac-10 (Oregon): spread. The best offense in the Big Ten (Penn State): spread. The best offense in the Big 12: Oklahoma with Texas Tech, Missouri, and Oklahoma State three of the next four slots nationally. The best offense in the Big East (USF): spread. That's five of six BCS conferences. (Florida State is the leader in the ACC.)

Aaaaaaaargh! So stupid make brain ouch.

Ha ha ha ha hahahahahahaha ha. The one bit of sunshine on Saturday was the stunning announcement by a friend that Notre Dame had managed to lose to Syracuse and pelt their own players with snowballs, causing Pat Kuntz to challenge the Notre Dame student section to a fight. Which… like… awesome.

NDNation would like to remind you that these things don't happen at Notre Dame, so this didn't happen. (FWIW, BGS says the snowball thing was overblown.)

At the time I tried to point out that the Notre Dame game was a turnover and big-play-filled fluke fest in which Michigan kind of sort of looked like a better team if they could cut out the zillion turnovers. ND was one of the few teams Michigan outgained significantly. If you asked me to bet on a rematch, I'd have bet on Michigan. Etc. Etc. That still applies; unfortunately the reason is not "Michigan is better than you think!"

This seems like the end for Weis; even the hardcore Weis fans who say things like "Never before have I found a head coach of Notre Dame so relatable"—which, like, wow, I hope I never find myself at a dinner party with that guy—are calling for his head on a platter.

Will they get it? If the rumors flying about Weis' buyout are correct, no. Because the rumors suggest the Notre Dame athletic department has done something so dumb even people given to think the Notre Dame athletic department is run by these guys…

The buyout is roughly as secretive as Joe Paterno’s Penn State coaching contract, but it’s believed that it would cost north of $15 million buy out Weis. (As the New York Times’ Pete Thamel notes, it’s not clear if the number for hiring the coach away versus firing him.)

I can read this a thousand different places and I don't think I'll believe it until Notre Dame announces Weis will return for 2009, but there you go.

A note: if Notre Dame does axe Weis there will be an opportunity to pick up a recruit or two. Michigan was involved with WR Shaquelle Evans and OLs Zach Martin, Chris Watt, and Alex Bullard before they committed. (Bullard's finalists were M, ND, and Tennesse, so if he's choosing based on his relationship with the coaching staff, or on, you know, having one, we're in good shape.) They also took a look at WR/DB Nyshier Oliver after his Tennessee decommit. Oh, and DT Theo Riddick is a teammate of Anthony LaLota.

In the lead column, columnist Pete Bigelow writes, “On his watch, the Wolverines careened to the worst season in their 129-year history..”

Defend this! Saying it doesn’t make it so, these statements should be qualified. I went over this last week but it’s not going away and the two mentions on the front page of the News put me over the top. It’s clear that the nine loss number is what people are keying on, and I could see an outlet like ESPN running with that. But the News?

Ah, yes, the News. Tirelessly stalwart friend of the program. For the record, Michigan had a worse winning percentage in 1962, 1936, and 1934. I don't think the people at the News are too stupid to divide, so the conclusion is they wish to sensationalize the matter for a short-term burst of attention.

For the record, MVictors selects 1934 as the worst year in program history. Michigan was 1-7; in the previous four years they had won two national championships and four conference titles. In eight games Michigan was shut out five times and scored just twenty-one points.

So take heart, Michigan fans. This isn't even the worst season in the last eighty years.

You do not get one immediately, you get one by applying for it after the completion of your career. IE after his 4th year he applies to get a 5th year of eligibility. If you have any playing time after the injury, (IE if you were hurt as a Sophomore and played your Junior and Senior year) the NCAA will say no.

The snowball incident was very definitely overblown by the media. I couldn't believe it when I saw "ND students take aim at players" headlines. The hated NBC commercial game-stopper guy and a fun-stopping cop were the targets. The very few snowballs that went near or hit players were either a) just bad throws or b) were thrown by a very very very small minority.
As for the Weis firing stuff, yea, this sucks. Not too many defending him now. I'm sad, please be nice to me.

I can definitely respect chucking anything and everything and the red-hat/red-gloves commercial guys. I've often wanted to chuck things at him...

I miss the days of marshmallow chucking myself. So awesome when they used to cover that whole corner of the endzone. Then you could shove a nickel in there and huck one really far...ahhh the glory days

Uhhhh...."Her Loyal Sons"....is there any lamer blog? The ongoing gag there is to follow the word "Michigan" with (Sucks!)....I mean, Jesus H man that is 1) stooopid and unoriginal and 2) not in any way, shape, or form funny.

Seriously, the "Notre Lame" people have more comedic ability in their pinkies then this guy.

Absolutely correct. I've several friends who are journalists in this state's paper of record and they regularly decry the out of context and over the top headlines that the headline writers (yep, there are separate headline writers, most journalists don't write their own headlines) create in an effort to drive clicks and web views that generate revenue.

I was at the ND game and BGS is correct. It was in no way a reaction to the loss, it started from the very beginning, and those throwing were interested in hitting everything and anything (the wide brimmed hats of state troopers, cheerleaders, camera men, empty spaces on the field).

It was definitely more prominent in the beginning and was probably at its peak when ND went up by 13 and looked to put the game away - because then people got bored.

On another note, I have been to about a dozen different venues for CFB, and ND's crowd is by far the worst I have seen. You think the Big House is quiet? Ha! I don't know whether it was just this season or this game, or what, but there was barely any noise during 3rd downs, it was like people weren't even paying attention (although it was absolutely freezing)

regardless of who was involved it was an embarrassment, quit trying to candy coat it and act like since the coach involved was low level it was okay. It shows a lack of discipline and respect. Perhaps screaming at your players isn't the best way to get them to respect you.

2nd, when you make inflamatory type remarks with a handle created within the last day or two, people will usually take to not so seriously on this forum. this isn't like mlive where people can hit and run and get away with it. people actually have some sort of credibility around here.

"Morpheus turns out to be a low-level strength and conditioning coach."

Excuse me for just discovering this site. When was the cutoff for signing on so that you could be considered credible? I do not see how my post was inflamatory. Sure, if I came on and said "MI sucks" then yes, I would have to agree with you. I made my post because I am concerned. Forgive the pun but I think many on this board see the world through rose colored glasses. To me , things do not look as good for MI and I think that a mistake has been made with the hiring of Rich. Please think before you bash.

1962 was the last really horrible season Michigan has had, and it was worse than this year. Lower winning percentage (2-7), and four shutout losses. Two of those were by a score of 28-0 to teams whose names end in "State."

If ND really wanted Weis gone, they would have no problem footing the $13 million bill. They have plenty of boosters with very deep pockets. That said, I think Weis' strong recruiting efforts will buy him at least one more year. Further, I think ND will be able to turn in a respectable record next year that will take him off the hot seat.

The most annoying part about Gary Danielson's ranting on the spread is listening to the guy stroke Florida's mushroom tip every Saturday. He's falling all over himself in an attempt to say as many great things as possible about Florida's offense then he turns around and drops the "spread is dead" stuff.